Free Traffic Legal Advice

I have received SJPN for driving 58mph on 50mph on N12 in London 2.30am driving a disabled Ukrainian refugee to Luton airport (my volunteering work outside of regular work) on 21 May 2024. I received NIP on 26 May 2024, to which I promptly responded confirming that I was the driver. Stupidly, I posted the form by regular mail, not recorded. The SJPN arrived on the 28 November 2024 stating that I have not satisfied the requirements of the Fixed Penalty. The Fixed Penalty was paid, but "they failed to provided their licence details for electronic endorsement and a refund was requested". I don't understand that statement: on the copy of the form I completed back in May it is clear that I written my driving licence, and there is no mentioning of any refund. So they withdrew the offer of Fixed Penalty. I probably will plead guilty because I cannot argue against an automatic camera. But I don't want to complete three pages of my financial information and my employer info. Is it mandatory to do or optional? In one place they said that providing my financial info may help me not to be overcharged, but in another place they state that I may be prosecuted if I don't declare all the facts. Please advise.

You have o submit your licence details twice - once when you respond confirming you were the driver and again after you have accepted the fixed penalty. Many people overlook this and see their case end up in court as you have.

There are a couple of other things you might like to consider as well.

Firstly, if the offence date was 21st May, the police must begin a prosecution by 21st November. It's probably in time but it might be worth checking the date the charge was issued.

The other thing is that it would be worth asking the court to consider sentencing you at the fixed penalty equivalent. Magistrates have the discretion to do this if they believe it is justified. Although the reason your case has gone to court is entirely your fault, you may find a kindly magistrate sees fit to do so. You should make your request under the "mitigation" section when responding to the SJPN.

As far as completing the form MC100 goes, it is (apparently) an offence to fail to provide your financial information when asked. I don't know what legislation covers that and I have never heard of anybody being prosecuted for it, but I don't see any point in not providing it. If you do not the court has the discretion to make what assumptions it thinks fit about your income though they normally simply revert to a default figure of £440pw. If you make a request to be sentenced at the fixed penalty level and it is refused, that is the figure that will be used to calculate your fine. Although the form asks for quite a lot of information, it is principally your income the court is interested in and if you simply provide that I doubt there will be any comeback.

For some reason only one attachment arrived, hence I am resending the other 7.

Apologies, I have not uploaded the paperwork initially - there are 22 pages that arrived through the post! I have now attached 8 pages of most relevant info.

Ignoring that you have not, and that attaching images directly to the forum rather than linking to images hosted on third party sites is generally a bad idea, relevant to what?

Now I understand that there should have been a second letter which apparently was posted on the 19/06/24 a Conditionsl offer of Fixed Penalty, which I must have received because the Witness Statement says it has been paid.  I am checking all my cards trying to find when dis I pay it but cannot locate it. I cannot remeber what happened in June but i would have paid if i had the letter.

Most people would remember receiving a COFP. N.B. Just because it says in the tubby's witness statement that the fixed penalty was paid doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't, but the statements are generally semi-automatically generated from tick-boxes - if the tubby ticked the "COFP paid but no licence details box" instead of the "COFP not paid" box, this would be the result.

Are you assuming that you must have paid the COFP just because the generated statement says so, or is it likely that you did and forgot about it?

The "read this first" post was updated after your post.

Good result. Thanks for letting us know.